Bill: End propane squeeze

Updated 7:08 pm, Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., center, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., center, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee ... more

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman ... more

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Rick Cummings, incoming president of NY Propane Gas Assoc., speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Cummings joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman ... more

Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Sen. Maziarz joined propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Sen. Maziarz joined propane industry leaders to address New ... more

Joe Porco of Porco Energy Corp. in Marlboro speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Porco joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Joe Porco of Porco Energy Corp. in Marlboro speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Porco joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and ... more

Joe Rose of Propane Gas Assoc. of New England, left, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Rose joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Joe Rose of Propane Gas Assoc. of New England, left, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Rose joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George ... more

Phil Squair of the National Propane Gas Assoc., left, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Squair joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George Maziarz and other propane industry leaders to address New York's propane supply and storage infrastructure, which is struggling to meet demand. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union) less

Phil Squair of the National Propane Gas Assoc., left, speaks during a news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. Squair joined Senate Energy Committee Chairman George ... more

With propane prices running more than 35 percent ahead of year-earlier figures, proponents pushed a plan Tuesday to turn a salt cavern in the Finger Lakes into a storage facility that would help smooth winter price spikes.

The Finger Lakes project — set in a cavern near Watkins Glen near Seneca Lake -— has awaited DEC approval for more than four years, proponents said.

A pipeline owned by Enterprise Products Partners that once delivered propane to the state has been reversed to carry ethane, another byproduct of natural gas, like propane, from the Marcellus shale natural gas fields in Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast, where it is exported. That has reduced propane supplies in New York

Plans call for the Finger Lakes storage facility to be filled in warmer months, when demand and prices are low. Another pipeline is still carrying propane northward to New York state and would be used to fill the salt cavern.

More Information

But the cavern plan has faced strong opposition, because it sits in the midst of lakes and vineyards that draw tourists to the Finger Lakes region. Local opponents told the Associated Press last year that the heavy truck and rail traffic, as well as possible accidents, would harm the wine and tourism industries.

Previous owners have used the caverns for gas storage.

The newest project would provide 88.2 million gallons of propane supply that proponents said would be enough to ease distribution problems and provide more supply during colder months. Propane is used as a heating fuel in 230,000 households statewide, according to propane industry officials. Farmers also use propane to dry grain harvests.

Proponents argue that the storage project would help ease price spikes, warning that New Yorkers who use it to heat their homes will spend $377 more on average this year than last.

"That adds up to an $84 million cost burden on New Yorkers that could have been avoided if New York had more safe propane storage infrastructure like the Finger Lakes project," said Rick Cummings, president of Mulhern Gas in Hudson and incoming president of the New York Propane Gas Association.